A platform approach towards hybrid photonic integration and assembly for communications, sensing, and quantum technologies based on a polymer waveguide technology

We present functionalities of photonic integrated circuits and a generic assembly approach for their hybrid integration with other components in the polymer waveguide platform PolyBoard. In addition to standard integrated optics capabilities, the PolyBoard approach allows for the realization of flexible interconnects, the fabrication of multilayer waveguide structures with low intra-layer coupling losses, and the integration of bulk optical crystals in on-chip free-space sections. These functionalities enable PICs with applications ranging from communications, via sensing, to quantum technology. The semiautomated assembly process presented in the second part of this paper ensures the compatibility of all individual functionalities and the scalability of the developed approaches towards production.